By William Brilliant

On a brisk weekend in early April, four university teams with members representing eight universities converged on Keele University, home of the very first competitive quadball match, to battle it out for the right to be crowned the British University Quadball Cup champions.

After the reformatting of the QUK season structure, they would have the honour of being the very first.

All eyes were squarely on the university division, and they did not disappoint. The event saw teams face the very highest of highs and the lowest of lows, moments that stopped hearts and minutes that left nails bitten down to the nib. We saw experienced veterans passing on batons to shining fresh faces, new alliances forged, old rivalries restoked.

Not to mention seeing the guest appearance of each and every one of the four seasons at various points of the weekend (huge shoutout to Winter for that hail).

This is the story of that weekend.

Day One

Day one of BUQC saw the four teams play each other in a round robin that would determine seeding for the double elimination bracket on day two.

First up to clash was Cambridge vs Edinburgh. The Holyrood Hippogriffs had been bolstered by four Warwick players and one Manchester Minotaur, who helped to round out a very dangerous team, capable of both heavy drives and skilled passing around the hoops.

The Cambridge Chronophages brought the smaller squad, but had dug deep to call forth a Leicester Thestral, a Werewolf of London, and a brother to fill out their ranks. In the end, Cambridge’s smaller, more technical roster took the win, 170-80*, but it would be a defeat that Edinburgh would learn well from when these two met again on day two.

Next up came Southampton against Oxford. The Southampton Anchors had returned to their tried and tested alliance with the Bristol Bears, bringing a wide range of experience. The Radcliffe Chimeras meanwhile had produced a whopping 19-player roster that was only shy of the legal limit of 21 after a few late dropouts.

Oxford proved the more consistent scorers of the two teams, and despite a flag catch from Southampton, the final score ran away from them at 110-50*.

In the second round of games, the two pairs swapped opponents, leaving Oxford to face Cambridge and Edinburgh Southampton.

In the Oxbridge Varsity match, Cambridge started the first half clearly dominant, but a hand injury and string of cards (including one ejection) left them open to a number of goals from the western university that went unanswered, followed shortly thereafter by a catch. Despite this setback, Cambridge pulled through to reach the set score of 140-100*, but the strength of Oxford’s deep bench in its late game was evident – foreshadowing what was to come on day 2.

Meanwhile Edinburgh, bolstered by the return of one of their star drivers and shooters, came out in force against Southampton. Despite a number of very close attempts by the Anchors, Edinburgh’s physical mismatch proved absolutely dominant against the physically smaller and less experienced team, and they were swept away under a barrage that left their only points on the board courtesy of their flag catch: 130-30*.

The final games of the day pitted Southampton against Cambridge and Oxford against Edinburgh.

In the former, Southampton improved upon their scoreline from their first two games, but ultimately couldn’t answer Cambridge’s drivers. They can still take some solace in having caught every flag of day one, leaving the scores 120-60* to Cambridge.

Edinburgh and Oxford (a rematch of the final of last year’s BQC) proved much closer, to the point that not even a sudden hailstorm could convince either team to forfeit the match. In a hard-fought, catch-to-win flag game, the tides ultimately tipped in favour of the Hippogriffs, ending the day on a 90*-40 scoreline.

These two ancient teams would get the chance to face off again in the very first game of day two, with the rankings of the round robin set as Cambridge 1st, Edinburgh 2nd, Oxford 3rd and Southampton 4th.

Day Two

Day two broke bright and early to reveal pitches heavily suffering under the combined hail-rain-boot combination. Across the day, both fields would steadily devolve into complete mud baths, forcing all teams to adapt their strategies for success. Yet the less-than-ideal conditions did nothing to deter the university teams’ ambitions of making it through the double elimination bracket, with every player on pitch throwing themselves heart and body into the tar pits of the fields throughout the day. The steady decline of every team’s kit colour into mud brown attests to their determination.

First to clash was a repeat of the Oxford-Edinburgh game from the day before (sans the hail interruption). The scores were kept nail-bitingly close, with a catch-to-win game going once more to the Scottish side, 70*-50. At the same time, an unfortunate series of injuries forced the Southampton side to forfeit their games but allowed them to continue to play under a 4-max gender limit. Cambridge celebrated their first catch of the tournament here, taking them to 160*-30.

Now one match away from the final, Edinburgh and Cambridge came to blows again. Bucking any expectations based on the day before, the Hippogriffs pounced onto the field with a ferocity that seemed to startle the Chronophages. As the flag was released onto the pitch, the scores were tied. A loss here would not instantaneously eliminate either team, but it would force them into the lower bracket and require them to play one additional game to get back into the final.

It was clear that neither team were prepared to give up the easier route. Cambridge and Edinburgh went tackle for tackle, score for score, until a sudden catch from the Cambridge side earned them the equally sudden win: 100*-70. Now the onus would be on the previous year’s runner up to fight their way back to the final.

Standing in their path would be the former winners, Oxford. Having been knocked down into the lower bracket a game earlier by Edinburgh themselves, Oxford had sailed through Southampton’s forfeited friendly and were now back to facing the Scots for the third time this weekend.

Both sides knew they were out of eliminations: either they would win this and face Cambridge in the finals, or they would be knocked fully out of the tournament.

At first, both sides seemed to be adjusting to the muddy pitch, with the first goal only being scored by Oxford after 3 minutes of gametime. Oxford seemed to identify the threat of shots from Edinburgh and took up a Baylor defence; Edinburgh took a few offences to find its weakness, but were soon sending a threatening player behind hoops to catch and slam it in before the hoop defender could respond.

For a while it looked like the two strategies were equally matched, but thanks to a few quick drives, the northerners began to pull ahead. As the seekers approached the flag runner (or perhaps more accurately were approached by the flag runner, the ever-formidable Douglas Bryant), Edinburgh tipped the score to 70-30.

Goals went back and forth, with some spectacular defensive plays from both sides, including a leaping block from Sarah Clark on Oxford and a double tackle from Matthew Hamilton and Ben Talbot for Edinburgh.

The score-difference flip-flopped between 40, 30, 40, 30, and then… 20. The whistle blew… and then kept blowing. Not two seconds after the scoreline closed to catch-to-win, Oxford pulled the sock… and won their spot in the final.

The Final: Cambridge vs Oxford

The stage was set. The final would be taking place between arch nemeses Oxford and Cambridge universities. Upgraded to a pristine 3G pitch, there would be no contention that the weather played any role in this match-up: the final would come down to skill and tenacity alone.

The sticks up whistle blew, and Cambridge came out swinging, with their larger players driving in 3 goals unanswered. But Oxford’s domination of the beater game left Cambridge vulnerable, and Oxford had soon put 3 back in their favour. Then things began to go very wrong for the Chronophages.

A no-bludgers situation allowed a drive that took the score to 50-40 in favour of Oxford… making them the first team in the tournament to have put Cambridge behind in points. Then an error in substitutions (during which Cambridge briefly fielded five chasers) sent speaking captain Jessie Ho to the penalty box. Crucially, she was a beater.

Oxford began to apply the pressure, under which Cambridge barely clung on. For a moment there was hope that the Easterlings would run out the card, but when their second beater ran through the Oxford keeper, he was promptly sent to join his partner in the sin bin.

With both Cambridge beaters out of the game, Oxford leapt at the opportunity with a full team assault. Somehow, the Chronophages’ tight 2-2 held, and under the combined weight of three separate wrappers, the Oxford ball carrier was brought down into a heap on the keeper line for long enough for one of the Cambridge beaters to be released and get back with a dodgeball, followed shortly by their second.

Now Cambridge began to rediscover their groove. With the Cambridge beaters winning control for the first time this game, the Chronophages began to inch up by score. As the seekers were counted in, the score stood at 70-90 to Cambridge. They had the momentum, the point difference, and the dodgeball control. What more could they possibly want?

Ah yes, the flag.

Try as they might, the grace and skill of Josh Armitage as the flag runner stumped Cambridge’s seekers for crucial minutes. Oxford regrouped and replanned, bursting their opposition’s bubble and giving their own seekers a chance. Yet likewise, the Oxford side smacked into the unyielding wall of Armitage and were rebuked.

Both teams traded dodgeballs in a flurry, bubbles were formed and burst every few minutes, and seekers cycled through desperately, each one searching for a chink in the flag runner armour.

Meanwhile, the chaser game continued fiercer than ever, with both sides making huge tackles, furious drives, and desperate defences. The slight lead Cambridge started with hovered out of SWIM for a moment, then dropped to almost level, before slowly rising once more. The scoreline shifted slowly but inexorably upwards, until the difference stood at 80 points.

At this point, most teams trailing would balk at the scoresheet, letting their heads drop and their hearts give in. But not the reigning champions. Oxford dug deep, finding some extra reserve of energy that escaped the flagging Chronophages, scoring three goals in a row. At the 42-minute mark, well into the third flag runner handicap, the score stood at 200-240, with still no catch in sight. Oxford now had just 3 minutes to do something incredible.

And incredible they did.

It started with that thing that lifts all spirits and changes all fortunes: a flag catch, courtesy of a well-timed dash from Liam Coffin while the flag runner was distracted.

The scores were 240*-260, and the time was 90 seconds to the hard time cap. Cambridge called an immediate timeout to discuss their response, but Oxford used this time well too. First one goal was put through by the blues, and then another. The scores were tied, and if the hard time cap was reached the first tiebreaker would give the win to whichever team caught the flag.

The Chronophages were running out of time. A missed beat from a Cambridge beater occurred right before a pitch-long drive by the newer team was caught up in contact. A blue beat got the volleyball back in the hands of the Oxford keeper, and following a high contact card, he wisely chose to take it from the endline. But instead of slowballing the length of the pitch, Oxford went for one more goal! 

The pitch reverberated with the chant of the crowd as they counted down the final few seconds… 3… 2… 1… and it was suddenly all over.

The final score was 260*-260.

Oxford had won!